The Department of Water and Sanitation in the Northern Cape has urged water users to use the resource sparingly to ensure water sustainability for both now and future generations.

Water storage in the Northern Cape Province is currently at 123.7 million cubic or 84% of the full storage capacity of 146.3 million m3 .

The Douglas Storage Weir in the Vaal River is currently at 16.729 million m3 or 103%. The full supply capacity of the Weir is 16.245 million m3 .

Boegoeberg Dam in the Orange River is at 20.451 million m3 or 99.2% this week, with Spitskop Dam in the Harts River at 44.277 million or 76.6%, while the Vaalharts Weir is at 42.073 million m3 or 83% The water level of the Karee Dam in the Northern Cape, which serves Calvinia, is currently at 20.8% and is still of concern.

It should be noted that the Karee Dam is the only storage dam in the Northern Cape.

The other dams are used as transient storages and have much smaller capacities than the larger storage dams in other provinces. Hence the levels of these vary from week to week.

They are fed from other upstream dams in the Vaal and Orange rivers and water is released from the upstream dams as required.

Residents of the Northern Cape are urged to continue using water sparingly as the summer rainfalls are not yet assured.